POLICE BRUTALITIES UPON INNOCENT CITIZENS OF KARACHI

 
Police torture cases are not new for the city of Karachi but view this photograph where a young man who has been stripped naked is hung upside down and subjected to torture

DAILY PARCHAM, KARACHI - 10 FEBRUARY 2000

POLICE BRUTALITIES UPON INNOCENT CITIZENS OF KARACHI

The above picture is one of the scenes witnessed in the Police Torture Cells in Karachi, Pakistan. Almost everyday innocent citizens are unlawfully arrested, tortured in custody and then either extra-judicially murdered or large sum of money is extracted from their family members for their release.

It is evident from the photograph that despite the claims of the present Government of Pakistan, torture in custody is a common practice. Citizens of Karachi in general and the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) leaders, workers, supporters and their relatives experience these brutalities almost everyday in the urban centres of Sindh, southern province of Pakistan.

Although the Central Government has repeatedly denied that it condones the use of force in custody, accounts of such violence continue to emerge. The Government further claims that officials who do use force will face punishment, yet we have not been able to witness a single case in which an official has been prosecuted for such abuses. The lack of action against those who implement the policy through violent means combined with the policy of the Establishment to crush the MQM physically constitutes a tacit acceptance of these violations.

Since the commencement of Army Operation in June 1992, against the MQM, more than 15000 MQM leaders, workers, supporters and their relatives have been extra-judicially murdered. Thousands have been maimed for life as a result of the ruthless and barbaric torture inflicted upon them while in custody of police and other law enforcement agencies. Over the years there have been many such accounts of how the police and other law enforcement agencies personnel have used force in carrying out this policy but to date not a single police official responsible for these heinous crimes have been apprehended and prosecuted for such abuses.